Women In Animation Announces Fifth Summit

Women in Animation (WIA) is pleased to announce the program for the fifth Women In Animation World Summit, in conjunction with this year’s hybrid version of the Annecy International Animation Festival and Mifa 2021. The theme of this year’s virtual Summit is “The Business Case for Diversity.”

The Women in Animation World Summit will be viewable exclusively as part of the festival’s virtual programming and for WIA members from Monday, June 14th at 9:00am CAT through Saturday, June 19th. As of June 20th, the Summit will be available to the general public via the WIA website and YouTube Channel.

“At the last four Summits, WIA built shared vocabulary around diversity, inclusion, belonging and equity,” said WIA President, Marge Dean. “As a global community, the organization traversed monumental paradigm shifts, challenges and opportunities this past year, including racial equity, a global pandemic, a rise in discriminatory violence and strong headwind toward inclusivity. As WIA marks its fifth Summit at Annecy, it’s important to ensure that our global WIA community continue to learn from each other and share not only the business imperative for DEI, but also the successes and failures we’ve all had in trying to move forward.”

Commenting on the theme, WIA Secretary/DEI Chair Julie Ann Crommett added, “The business case is not just that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are good for business empirically (they are), but that we each as businesses and individuals have a part to play in making change. Many companies, organizations and industries have committed to doing better – seizing the case for DEI. We get further faster by being more transparent with each other, more transparent as an industry and truly building a global community of practice and thought leadership. Our hope is this Summit begins to model what transparency and action can and should be in our industry.”

Further to that, WIA Vice President Jinko Gotoh said, “We must democratize animation on all fronts: education, art, technology, and industry. I’m proud of the work WIA continues to do. We advocate sustainable change across the globe. Along those lines, we are thrilled to partner with Triggerfish to present this year’s Summit, as they have been doing such tremendous work over the years to diversify storytelling and bring better representation to the African animation industry.”

“We’re honored to be partnering with WIA on this important summit,” said Stuart Forrest, CEO, Triggerfish. “Triggerfish has a vision for a world where stories are told and created by the people the stories belong to, and WIA’s work in gender inclusivity and diversity takes huge steps towards that goal, particularly as it applies to the continent of Africa.”

Added Mickaël Marin, CEO of Citia, on behalf of the Annecy International Animation Festival, “We are so proud to once again host the Women in Animation World Summit as part of our festival. WIA’s dedication to presenting enlightening conversations surrounding diversity and inclusion really inspire us year after year.”